Doctor Who: Cairde i mBosca
by A Rhea King
Summary: "Hide" made me wonder what the TARDIS does when its left alone.


Cairde i mBosca

By

A. Rhea King

With a whir and other electronic sounds, the TARDIS materialized in a grove of trees, near a road. A farmhouse could be seen from this spot, sitting on top of a hill.

The door formed where trees blocked both sides. Clara opened the door and stared at the trees for a moment.

"Doctor," she said crossly. "We have a problem."

He appeared next to her. Then he looked crossly up at the doorframe.

"You couldn't have warned me?" he asked the TARDIS.

There was no response.

"She's been doing this a lot lately."

"She's just being cranky, although I can't figure why. Shut the door," he told Clara. "We'll try parking again."

The two disappeared back inside. The TARDIS disappeared, and then reappeared in front of the trees, but still in the grove. Clara opened the door, and then stepped out into the sunlight. The Doctor followed her out.

"Where are we?"

"1969, the start of Woodstock in…" He looked at his watch. "Two hours. Best we go look for a good place to pitch a tent."

"A tent?" she asked dubiously.

"Of course. A tent!" He walked off, telling her. "Everyone loves tents."

"I don't care for them, actually."

"You'll love a tent."

"No. I think not."

The two walked away debating the likelihood of enjoying a tent, leaving the TARDIS alone in a grove of trees near the road. The day wore on and night began to sink in. The valley echoed with the music and mass of people. The setting sun had just lit the sky on fire when footsteps could be heard coming through the trees.

A young woman, not much older than Clara, came around the TARDIS. She stopped, looking at the front, and smiled.

"Hello there," she said to it. Her voice had an Irish accent that living in America had toned down some. She laid her hand on the wood and ran it down the painted surface. She smiled as she pulled her coat tighter around her.

"This is quite unexpected," she told the Police Box with a smile. "But I guess, considering what you are, it's not unheard of, is it? My great grandmother told me stories of a blue Police Box that once took her some places far away, with a man called the Doctor. Well, she was never sure he was a man he just looked like one. They had an adventure, the two of them, and then she came home and never saw him, or you, again." The woman leaned in, as if telling the TARDIS a secret. "I always thought she was a little daft about the stories, but then here you are, sitting in the middle of New York, nearest an epic music fair."

The woman turned away, looking off to where there was a halo of lights through the trees. "They're predicting rain during this. The whole lot will be lucky not to catch their death of pneumonia, they will." She looked sidelong at the TARDIS. "Is your Doctor Who down there with someone?"

She smiled, patting the blue wood. "Well, I'd best be going. Supper won't make itself."

The woman walked away. She crossed the road and started up the hill toward the farmhouse. Darkness closed in around the TARDIS. It was a lonely place to be.

The woman took wide steps down the hill to the road. She paused to let a car pass, and then trotted across the road. She was carrying a knapsack in one hand and a transistor radio in the other. She smiled when the TARDIS came in sight.

"I brought you some music," she told it. She spotted a log nearby and sat down, setting the radio next to her feet. She dug out an apple and a small piece of wrapped cheese, and began eating.

"My grandmother said you were able to understand things – but she never did see any proof of that, it's just what the Doctor said." She slid off the log and sat down on the ground so she could recline against the rock. "She never really talked about where they went; just that she saw years of wonderful things, and it was only a matter of minutes here. I wonder what that's like."

"Have you ever seen the end of the universe?"

The woman looked over her knees at the holograph of Clara. She slowly moved to sit up on the log.

"Who are you?"

"The TARDIS Graphic Interface."

"Oh. Well, that's unique, isn't it?"

"There are more advance systems in other cultures."

The woman smiled. "Are there? I take that comment back then. I'm Sara. What do I call you?"

"TARDIS."

"Aye. I should have suspected. And to answer your question, no, I've never seen that. Has anyone?"

"Yes."

"You're Doctor?"

"Yes. And others."

"Mm. Does it make a sound, the edge of the universe? Or is that a silly question just a human would ask?"

"It does make a sound, yes."

Sara smiled. She grabbed her radio. "Can you show me the sound? Can you make it come out on here?"

TARDIS looked at the radio, then Sara. "It is something to be experienced."

She disappeared followed by the door opening.

Sara stared at the open door for several minutes, debating. Her trance was broken when a car sped past on the road. She stood up, grabbed her knapsack and walked inside.

Inside she turned, taking in the room she'd entered.

"My grandmother said you have a pool."

The holograph of Clara appeared behind her. "I do."

Sara turned, grinning. "And how many bedrooms and lous?"

"As many as I need. I am infinite."

"Really?" Sara looked over the controls but didn't touch any of them. "What does it feel like to be infinite?"

When TARDIS didn't answer, Sara leaned to the side so she could see the holograph around the center console. TARDIS stared at her. She walked up to her.

"Do you not know?"

"I do not have any words you could understand to describe it."

Sara smiled. "That's a problem of a different color, isn't it?" Sara walked over to a set of stairs and sat down.

"You were going to let me hear the end of the universe, remember?"

The door closed. The two stared at each other.

"Does that mean you're mad at me?" Sara asked.

"Look outside. However, don't step off. Gravity is different here. I could not save you if you fell."

Sara walked over to the door and opened it. Her breath was stolen away. They sat near what looked like a rip across the sky. Bright light of every color mixed with bitch black. On one side of the rip were stars as far as the eye could see. On the other was black nothing. There was no way to tell how far that blackness went on. As breathtaking as that sight was, it wasn't what stole Sara's breath. She could hear the song that she imagined angels sang. It was low, almost inaudible, and it sounded like a collection of wales and wood flutes, with the underlying white noise of a television station that had gone off air.

"This is…" Sara smiled, leaning against the door.

She looked at TARDIS when she joined her. It took her a moment to realize—

"Oh! Let me get that door for you. I'm sorry," Sara said.

She opened the second door and the two stood in the doorway with the end and beginning of space laid out before them.

"There are no words for this, are there?" Sara asked.

"None."

Sara turned, leaning back against a railing. "If you had to pick your favorite place in the entire universe, anywhere in time, what would it be?" TARDIS began to respond but Sara held up her finger. "I have a better idea. Don't tell me, take me there and show me."

TARDIS stared at her. "I will be late returning to pick up the Doctor and his companion."

"I thought you could travel through time."

"Where we would go, I cannot escape time so easily."

"Is it really dangerous? We shouldn't go if it is."

The TARDIS stared at her. "Close the doors, Sara."

Sara did. She walked back to the stairs and sat down. "Show me something else fantastic like the end of the universe."

TARDIS turned to her. "I will show you my favorite place in time and history."

"But you just said that—"

"They will wait." The holograph disappeared.

Sara fell back some when the TARDIS jerked. She smiled.

"Alright, but you might be asking for trouble if you get back late."

The Doctor and Clara trudged up the road. They were both muddy and soaked.

"I didn't know the tent would leak."

She shot him a look.

"It was an accident."

"I just want dry clothes and a shower."

He smiled. "You have to admit this was a good idea otherwise."

She almost smiled. "Yes it was."

The two turned into the trees and walked through them. The Doctor stopped suddenly, looking around him.

"What?"

"The TARDIS is gone."

"No. It's just further in the trees."

"No. It was right here. I left her right here. She's gone!"

"Did you reset everything again?"

"No. I left her right here, Clara."

Clara sat down on a log and pushed back her muddy, wet hair. "Great. Now I'm stuck in 1969, wet, muddy, hungry, and tired. Our next adventure had better be to someplace tropical and warm."

"The TARDIS is gone, Clara! There is no next adventure without the…"

He suddenly jumped back. Clara got to her feet, joining him. They watched the TARDIS reappear before them. When it finished, neither moved. Clara finally snuck a look at the Doctor's face. He stared at the machine as if it was going to bite him.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked.

"Sort of, but not really," Clara answered.

"Not you. Sh," he told her.

With apprehensive steps, he walked toward the TARDIS. "Did I do something wrong?"

The door opened for him. He heard someone talking inside. He glanced at Clara, then back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor walked in, following the voice. He found a girl sitting on a stack of pillows at the bottom of the stairs. She was plain looking. Her brown hair was cropped to the bottom of her neck. She had typical hazel eyes, an average mouth, and didn't look extraordinary in any way. She smiled at him, continuing to talk.

"So there I am," she told the air, "this waif of a girl holding on for dear life to the mane of this wild pony."

"Who are you talking to?" Doctor Who asked her.

She motioned him to wait.

He was aware that Clara was standing behind him, also staring at the girl.

"And we were headed toward the stone wall. I was certain we were going to run headlong into it. Then a few meters before it, the pony stops. Just stops! I flew over it's head, but I held onto those reins. I wasn't about to walk back home, not after that ride. I rolled down the hill and could hear the pony running too. I didn't know where he was. Everything was blurry. I land in the marsh at the bottom and get covered in mud. Then I laid there – waiting to see if I was dead or alive. I look up, and this stupid pony is standing over me, staring me, as if it wanted to know why I was on the ground!" The woman laughed as she climbed to her feet. "And that, is how I learned to ride and was able to get a job at a horse farm here in the United States."

The Doctor spun around when the controls began to flicker, when things whirred, and somewhere a horn honked.

"Sara."

He turned around, finding her holding out her hand.

"Doctor." He shook her hand. "Why are you in my TARDIS?"

"She's not your TARDIS. You're her Doctor. At least that's what she believes."

"Well, the semantics are… She? You're calling the TARDIS a she?"

Sara had turned to gather her belongings next to the pillows. She shouldered her knapsack. "Of course. She's a she, or so she also believes that she's a she. What do you believe she is?"

"I… She. It's just no one ever talks about her like that."

"She's a ship. I thought it was a given that they were all female?"

The Doctor smiled. "That is a very good point, isn't it?"

Sara smiled. "Well, I must be going, before the search party is sent out for me. It was good to meet you. And you as well Clara."

"You know my name?"

"Of course I know your name! TARDIS told me." Sara walked up to her. "And if you want to start getting on her good side, give a room a good scrubbing every so often. She likes that."

Sara walked out of the TARDIS. Clara turned to the Doctor. He grinned. He turned, looking up at the rings overhead.

"What have you been up to, girl?"

He turned when something appeared on a screen behind him. _Making friends. Do you like her?_

"I think she's adorable! And I can see she's taken a shine to you, my dear. Are you going to come back to see her soon?"

On the screen printed: _Time permitting._

"That's the spirit!"

"Doctor," Clara quietly said.

He turned to her. "Hm?"

"It doesn't disturb you that some strange woman was in here talking to your ship?"

"Technically, she's right, TARDIS isn't _my_ ship so much as I'm _her_ Doctor. And no. She never would have let her in if she didn't trust her. TARDIS doesn't trust many people."

"Like me?"

"She will. I told you, she's like a cat."

Clara picked at the console. "Your cat likes a complete stranger over me."

The Doctor smiled when she looked up. "She will warm up to you. You said she used a holograph of you. She likes you; she's just not very open about it."

Clara offered a half-attempted smile.

"Will she go off on her own to visit this new friend of hers?"

"Yes. She will."

"Won't that leave us stranded?"

"From time to time, but she'll always come back. Although… Usually you're here before I come back. Why were you late this time?"

On the screen printed: _Center of the universe._

"Oh."

"What?" Clara looked at the screen. "What does that mean?"

He grinned. "She likes the center of the universe over any time or place. She'd probably stay there forever if she could. She took her new friend to see it."

Clara looked at the floor, then the screen. "Could… I see it?"

There wasn't an answer. It looked like the answer was no.

"Well, where should we g—"

He was interrupted by a print on the screen: _Yes_.

The Doctor smiled at Clara. "Just like a cat, remember."

Clara smiled, sidling up to him. "Thank you, TARDIS."

_Yes_ printed on the screen again.

Sara sat on the log, looking at her sneakers. She glanced at the post card that sat on her knapsack. It had been sent from Taos and the only text written on it was a date and time. The Doctor had come up with the idea so she would know when and what day to expect her friend, the TARDIS, to return for a visit.

She looked up when she heard the TARDIS approaching and it appeared. The door opened. She picked up her knapsack at her feet and walked inside, finding the room empty.

"Are they off on some grand adventure?" Sara asked.

A holograph of Clara appeared nearby. "Yes."

She looked at Clara. "Where shall we go adventure?"

"Some place tropical. Some place warm and safe."

"I packed a swimsuit and book."

The holograph smiled. The door slammed closed and away the two friends went.


End file.
